PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to guide future researchers and practitioners into the process of interviewing in the Chinese context.

Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used is an empirical critical reflection.

FindingsThe authors identified 11 major themes such as how to get an interview, antecedents of the interview, building rapport, complexity, language, interview settings, interview procedure, stages, probing and sensitive topics, selection of respondents and post-interview.

Research limitations/implicationsThe location of the interviews.

Practical implicationsGuide foreigner researchers and managers on how to conduct interviews in China.

Social implicationsThe context matters, and only with a specific approach some can perform well and achieve the interview objectives. Doing so, the researcher or practitioner will not create situations that might be problematic for her/him and the interviewee. Based on the above, the authors’ research decreases potential social tensions that interview situations can create.

Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other researcher has studied the specificities of interviewing in China, which brings originality and value to the authors’ research.